Strange Exam Paper Illustration - What Do You See?

I'm interested in the boys right arm, the one pointing down on the left of the picture... seems like an odd pose

Could this be another sign or symbol of something, anyone know sign language or semaphore?

The only thing I can add to this is that the boys left eye is just barely visible......
I keep thinking of Lady Gaga and her love of covering up the left eye.
Very interesting thread.
Regards, Iwinder

That white reflection up the middle of the boys shirt also extends out onto both sleeves, if you look it might just be a representation of a tower on fire with plumbs of smoke exiting the top parts.
Regards, Iwinder

The utility knife has four settings on it as well .........the four men and the four notches makes you wonder eh?
"Put another notch on your gun to keep count of your kills"
And you would also use a knife to put the notch in as well.
Regards, Iwinder

Ben Frost (benfrostisdead.com) is awesome. He's been creating provocative pop-art for a while, but this doesn't look like his work... but does reflect some of this themes.

benfrostisdead.com...

benfrostisdead.com...

benfrostisdead.com...

reply to post by Cythraul


Nice find.

The art style reminds me a little of the Dever airport mural

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Perhaps this was originally a private commission and he didn't put it on his web site? I agree that it matches some of his themes; although the style is differant.

Originally posted by Cythraul
I can share what hidden messages I'm aware of in the photo, but it won't take the sharp minds here at ATS long to find them (particularly given the forum that I've posted this in).

I'd like to know who drew this and when. The exam paper credits the illustration to 'toy advertising', but what toy? What company?

Everyone here knows what my thoughts are on these inane conspriacy stories...but I have to concur the artist deliberately included 9/11 references in this drawing. I can overlook the airplane, the building blocks and the soccer ball with the Pentagon, and I can even overlook the blocks piled in the shape of the twin towers, but there's no way including the word "armageddon" is a coincidence, especially since the blocks are laid out so that the word is easy to spot, and who the [censored] gives box cutters to children for them play with? It obviously didn't come from a toy advertisement. Maybe it came from some political column that used this graphic for whatever point they were making about the 9/11 attack? The graphic is being taken out of context so it's hard to say.

My take on it is that whoever it was that put this test together simply needed a public domain graphic of this type (I.E. one that showed a girl in a pink outfit to indicate gender stereotypes) and grabbed this graphic off the internet without really noticing the 9/11 references. Or at least, I would opt for that scenario over the "this is subliminal programming propaganda released by the secret world order as a coverup of the sinister plot to take over the world" paranoid nonsense that is bound to be posted here.

reply to post by GoodOlDave
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you are spot on, it was created by artist ben frost and picked up inadvertently by a few different people by the looks of it, as it seems to appear in a few places, and the people using it seem to be totally unaware of the messaging in the artwork..

All of the stated above along with a plane with no windows? Well it looks like it has no windows to me. As for the colors..I don't know. 3 Blue letters, 3 Green letters, & 3 Pink letters with one yellow.

On the ball - one of the pentagons is actually a hexagon if you look closely..
Homage to Saturn perhaps?

Here are my observations that I’ve not seen anyone mention:

1. A couple of people have questioned the significance of the boy and girl. Well, in alchemical tradition there are two main forces in the Universe: Gold and silver, Sun and Moon, day and night, Male and Female, fire and ice, destruction and creation. According to this tradition the male represents the destructive, encroaching force that imposes its will upon the female - the creative, submissive force. So in the context of the illustration, it looks as though the boy is holding the plane (the destructive force) and the female has either built the tower in the first place or has created the infrastructure which enables the whole event to occur. Either way she is the creative force. The fact that the boy is dressed in the US Flag means that the USA is being portrayed as a destructive force imposing its will upon others.
   
2. I think the boy and girl are meant to be brother and sister. They look alike. To me this symbolizes the idea that the creation of the WTC and its destruction came from the same source: the NWO/Illuminati. It also symbolizes PROBLEM-REACTION-SOLUTION where the same body who causes the problem offers the solution so that they can manipulate world affairs and the populace.
   
3. The children are white, clearly defying the official notion that it was Arabs who perpetrated the attack.
   
4. The paper men could represent a ‘paper trail’ – the fact that key documents stored in WTC 7 were destroyed. But more likely, it represents the idea that the men who hijacked the 4 planes were ‘paper men’ in that they only existed as we know them on paper. Their identities were fabrications.
   
5. The box-cutter is of course what one or more of the ‘terrorists’ is supposed to have used to hijack the plane.
   
6. As has been touched upon, the ball has pentagons all over it. Here in the UK that’s actually a common pattern for footballs (or ‘soccer balls’ as you Americans call them
   ), but if intentional it represents the power the NWO holds over the entire World, which is ‘yellow’ with cowardice or fear.
   

That’s all I’ve got. I’ve studied the blocks/letters closely and I personally believe there’s nothing in the colours. It simply says ‘ARMAGEDDON’ and that’s all there is to it.

One thing i noticed is the girl looks like a chimpanzee.

An artist who knows his clientèle? Meaning people who would be willing to purchase his art are basically more leaning towards what is known as "the fringe". Not that there is anything wrong with that, different strokes for different folks. Suffice it to say it is tough, especially these days, to make a living as an artist. Some put what is inside their heads, for better or worse, into their art because it gets people to look at their art more closely instead of just being like "oh...nice a picture of kids playing." It's the visceral effect.

Originally posted by doubledutch
reply to post by GoodOlDave
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and the people using it seem to be totally unaware of the messaging in the artwork..

edit on 15-2-2012 by doubledutch because: (no reason given)

Considering this was a sociology class i would think at least some of the "messages" were known. I love art myself and artists are usually very sensitive so i am not usually too critical.

Originally posted by Malcher

 

Considering this was a sociology class i would think at least some of the "messages" were known. I love art myself and artists are usually very sensitive so i am not usually too critical.

...but being a psychology class it also makes me think that the creator of the test is seeing the graphic through tunnel vision. The creator was so preoccupied with creating relevent teaching material on gender stereotypes that when he or she saw this graphic the only thing going through his/her mind is how this graphic could be used to illustrate gender stereotypes. The graphic does in fact contain gender stereotypes, with the girl wearing pink and playing with paper dolls. The blocks could therefore have spelled out I LOVE BOOBIES and the creator probably wouldn't have noticed that either becuase he/she wasn't looking at the blocks. He/she was looking at the girl wearing pink and playing with paper dolls.

Although technically, I LOVE BOOBIES is a gender stereotype as well...

What struck me as most unusual is that the kids clothing looks like its out of the 40's while the boy is playing with a modern airplane and ball. Box-cutters make dangerous tools for kids.

Originally posted by elevenaugust

Originally posted by doubledutch
interesting thread, we really need to find the original image, what it was created for and when...

Like I said page 2, it's an artwork made by "Ben Frost" and published (not anymore available though) in the retortmagazine.com.

I've just sent him an email asking for clarifications.

Gday. Long time lurker, first time poster. Felt compelled to reply after doing a touch more digging into the excellent research by elevenaugust.

Yes the work is by Ben Frost. I would hazard a guess he would be quite interested in your email and to learn the places this piece has been used ... particularly the exam paper.

Ben was feature artist in the September 2001 edition (vol1 ed5) of Retort Magazine. This image however, featured in the 'extras' of the October 2001 issue (vol1 ed6). These issues are archived by Pandora - Australia's web archive (pandora.nla.gov.au...)

The artwork is titled simply, "Armageddon" ... "Armageddon or Bust" is a different piece of artwork by the same artist.

The archived issue is here - pandora.nla.gov.au...

Select 'Extras' ... then click on "A NEW PAINTING BY BEN FROST"

A list of all the archived issues is here - pandora.nla.gov.au...


Thanks OP for an intriguing find. Most surely it was suspected, at the very least, by the examiners, what the image represented. I've also backward-searched it through Google images and its disturbing the type of webpages the image has been used for. The artwork is also directly linked at that last address I gave, with the "Armageddon" title and the artist's name. There is no doubt Ben is the creator and that the work has a 'sinister' theme ... far from any toy manufacture advert.

The box-cutter is of course what one or more of the ‘terrorists’ is supposed to have used to hijack the plane.

reply to post by Cythraul

I don't think that anyone has mentioned the fact that the box cutter is PINK, indicating that it may belong to the girl, not the boy.

reply to post by Cythraul


start of armogeddon, 2 towers, plane, little kids are the people involved in all that (leaders of the world are like kids with alot of toys)
also looks like a 3rd tower being built with the 1st n last letters, alpha and omega? or a new world order...